Land of the Dead
by Caustic Window
Summary: Zombies rule the earth devouring anything in their way, humans live in gated cities in a constant battle for survival. Romero's Land of the Dead, told with evo characters. Gore, violence, bad language and lots of blood. This is not for the faint hearted.
1. Chapter 1

Land of the Dead

Reated M

Land of the Dead x-men evo twist romy AU no powers just lots and lots of zombies bwahahahaha

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters they belong to marvel and the brilliant George A. Romero

This is my first fanfic, I realised that there just isint enough x-men zombie fanfic even if its AU so here is my try at it, let me know what you think of this firstchappie Im open to all criticism. If you like Ill continue.

Enjoy!

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Its a cloudy and dark night with the full moon shining, every so often, over this picture-perfect American town.

People are strolling around the town centre and looking at shops.

 Or so it seems...

 At closer inspection, nothing in the town is lit. Street lamps, windows, were all dark.

Some of the people are walking to the town park, milling around a gazebo, where three musicians were struggling with a trombone, a saxophone, and a can't seem to make the instruments work, except for the tambourine player, who is rattling out a few very unrhythmic beats.

 As the moonlight appeared from behind the cloud it becomes clear that the "musicians" in the gazebo are dead. So are the "people" around them. Flesh is rotting off their bones. Limbs literally falling, faces torn in unspeakable ways.

 The town itself, which at first looked so perfect, seems to be rotting too.

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In a bush atop a hill near the park 2 small red lights can be seen.

 A whipered accented voice near the red lights says "They're trying to be us."

 The red lights replyes "They used to be us" and in a worried tone adds "They're learning how to be us again".

 Gambit watches the town wearily through his binoculars.

 Pete replies "No way mate. Some germ or some devil got them things up and walkin' there's a big difference between them and us. They're dead!".

 As they continue looking at the events around them they notice a dead teenage couple walking hand-in-hand near the gas pumps of a defunct gas station.

 The boy steps on the little hose that bings when a car pulls in. Out of the building comes... an attendant.

 Once tall and handsome. Now his face is a wrinkled map of death. He has lost its left arm. Dried blood darkens the shoulder of its jump-suit, where the arm was

torn away.

 Gambit notices A "TEXACO" patch on his bloodied chest "Pyro! See the patch?" Pete looks "Yeah mate and?" Gambit rolls his eyes and replies "What that patch tells me Petey boy is that the little teapot over there used to work here. Wait! Not teapot, no this dead fella over here is BIG DADDY".

 'Big Daddy' goes to the pump and removes the nozzle. He turns the valve, as if searching for a car to fill with gas. There is none.

 As the two men watch the events unfold in front of them Pete speaks up "It's like they're pretending to be alive" Gambit looks over to his friend and sais "Isn't that what we're doing, Petey boy? Pretending to be alive?".

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The sound of groaning wood pierces the not so silent night as three heavily armed guerrilla looking guys push a large crate over a precipice into a deep garbage pit below.

Five similar crates lie amidst the rubble.

Insects are buzzing. Rats are crawling. Human skeletons, most headless, lie everywhere, no flesh left on their bones. Those with heads show various wounds to their skulls. Except for one, which...

Suddenly, startlingly moves! Its bony arm reaches up from the bottom of the pit toward...

...Lance Alvers, man in his 20s, handsome, roguish, and confident...a bit too confident. He reaches over his shoulder and unstraps a crossbow "Poor bastard."

WFFFFT! Lance shoots the skeleton. His arrow goes completely through the white skull.

The doors of a beat-up white moving van open. Lance reaches in, throwing back an oilcloth that covers another crate.

One of the guerrilla looking men says "Whole lotta trash this week."

 Lance replies "That's life, brother. A whole lotta trash."

 As the men tip the crate onto a dolly, maggots are revealed in the darkness beneath, squirming in a pool of blood.

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Back to the bush....

Gambit and Pete watch three dead things lumber toward them from the town below. Without moving his stare from the 'things' pulls the binoculars to his odd eyes Gambit sais "They know we're here. They can smell life. Smell blood."

 Big Daddy replaces the nozzle in the gas pump. Sensing something, it looks around. up. His dead eyes lock on Gambit's red on black ones. Big Daddy grunts. As if responding to him...

 ...the three dead things are moving up the hillside with more determination.

Sensing that they might be in more danger than they bargained for Gambit glances at Pete's gun and speak "You any good with those?"

Pete gives him a nervous glance "Dunno mate! It's my first trip. Never had to use `em before really"

 Gambit rolls his odd eyes again and with voice dripping with sarcasm "Great. I'm out here with a guy who can't shoot. Let's go."

 Pete stands, turns, and is grabbed from behind by a zombie!

 It's not one of the three they had been watching. This one wears the remains of a clown suit. Half its bulbous red nose had been eaten away. His painted eyelashes make its stare alarming. Its orange hair is crawling with spiders.

 It wrestles Pete to the ground. Opens its lipsticked mouth. Is about to bite Pete's neck when Gambit fires his flashy .45. BLAM! A bullet shatters the Clown's shoulder cap. The dead thing is pitched backward, but seems to feel no pain. It hunkers over Pete again.

 Gambit fires four more times. Three bullets rip into 1 the Clown's chest, 2 the neck, 3 in the cheek. Finally, number 4 blasts above the thing's left eyebrow. The Clown drops to the ground, no movement.

Pete looks at Gambit. "Jesus mate! You can't shoot, neither!" And starts laughing like a maniac. Gambit runs a hand through his hair and smiles at the weird man.

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Gambit and Pete step into a tight, uncomfortable space. Generators whir. The two men open a storage locker and strap on ammo belts as something terrible looms out of the shadows!

 It moves toward Gambit and Pete, who can't see it from behind the locker.

 The left side of the thing's face has been burned away. Only scar-tissue remains, and a single usable eye bulging from a socket.

 Gambit turns. Sees the thing. And, surprisingly, he relaxes,recognizing John St. John aka Pyro, a heavily-armed guerilla whose intellect is as burned as his face. "Tcha doin', Gambit?" says Pyro.

Gambit inhales and looks around "Havin' a bad dream." Pyro looks at his friend "I have bad dreams. Hell, yes. Just look at me, you can tell that I have terrible dreams."

Gambit closes his eyes "The town is full of walkers".

Pyro looks at Gambit "Every town is full of walkers."

Gambit shakes his and replies "These aren't just walking. They're like...regular folks."

Pyro gives his friend a puzzled look "But they're dumb, Remy. Hell, dead folks is near as dumb as me!"

Remy looks at his friend "You learned how to make yourself useful. That's what they're doing."

A woman's voice shouts "They dumped the trash. lance's on his way."

Gambit and Pete look across the room in the direction of the voice. Twenty feet away, a woman sits at the controls of what looks like a scavenged airplane

cockpit that's outfitted with a mixture of high- and low-tech equipment. She wears a black leather jacket with "PRETTY BOY" emblazoned across the back.

Pete looks surprised"Pretty Boy's a dame?" Gambit huffs "This one is. Last one was a guy." Pete's expression changes "What happened to him?" Pretty Boy

turns, poking her finger through a bullet hole encrusted with year-old blood in the chest of her jacket "I kept his jacket. For good luck."

Pyro gives the girl and odd look "Luck?"

Gambit ignores the exchange "Put some flowers in the graveyard."

Pretty Boy reaches out and flips a toggle switch on the control panel. THOOMB! THOOMB! Deep exploding sounds can be felt as much as heard.

Gambit, Pyro, and Pete step out of A vehicle the size of a city bus. The words DEAD RECKONING are painted on its side. This is no bus. It's a war wagon, built of scavenged parts with riveted steel parts. Gatling guns protrude from a mean looking snout. A roof turret supports two fourteen inch cannons. Rotating lights shine in all directions, piercing the night.

THOOMB! THOOMB! THOOMB! That sound again. Mortar tubes on the vehicle's roof are launching fireworks into the night sky.

Pyro Looks up "Flowers in the graveyard'. Why do you call `em that, Gambit? I don't get it. These here flowers ain't the kind you lay down on the ground. These here are sky flowers. Way up in Heaven."

Remy looks at his friends and chuckles "I love ya, Jonny boy. Know why? Cuzz you still believe in heaven."

The white moving van rolls in and parks beside Dead Reckoning.

Lance jumps out with the three guerrillas from the dump.

"You guys scope out the town?" sais Lance to Gambit "Looks like nobody's hit it before."

 Four guerrillas get into an old T-Bird convertible mounted with machine guns. Two other armed men climb onto motorcycles. The very night seems to growl as everyone starts their engines.

 Lance shouts "Ready?"

 Pyro giggles madly "Always ready. Just look at me! You can tell I'm always ready."

 Lance sneers his retort "I look at you, all I see's an idiot!"

 Pyro laughs " I don't think that's all you see. bet you see this iron, too!"

 Pyro is wearing four holstered sidearms, two shouldered automatic rifles, a remington...and a sly smile that makes us wonder whether he's an idiot or not.

 Lance also laughs "Let's go have some fun."

 Gambit sighs "Ain't about fun, Lance."

 VROOOM! The T-Bird and the motorcycles pull out toward town.

 He continues "We go in, do our job, and get out,all of us alive, okay? I don't want any fuck-ups on my last day out here."

 Lance grins "My last day, too."

 Gambit looks surprised. Lance mounts a Motorcycle, revs the

 engine, and heads out "YEEEE-HAAAAAAAA!".

 Pyro looks over at Lance "What'd he do, hit the lottery or somethin'?"

 Gambit looks alarmed by this and mutters "Somethin'.... Somethin'".

 Gambit and Pyro start to get back into Dead Reckoning. Pete follows, pausing to look up at the "sky flowers" "Do those things really work?"

 Gambit looks up "Yup. (Almost sadly) Stenches can't take their eyes off `em."

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Zombies stand completely frozen in the middle of main street, like statues, mesmerized by the fireworks. Only one figure is moving. Big Daddy. He weaves between his brothers and sisters, urgently waving his one good hand, like Frankenstein's monster, as if to say "Bad! Bad!" He has learned that fireworks bring danger.

 A dead teenage cheerleader, holding filthy pom-poms, looks at Big Daddy, unable to grasp what he's trying to communicate. A spear is driven through the Cheerleader's face! The spear is held like a lance by Harry, a guerilla who roars past on his motorcycle hooting like a cowhand on round-up. Other bikers rumble down the street, firing guns. Big Daddy watches the Cheerleader fall. It throws its head back and lets out a great howl.

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Gambit looking through the windshield recognizes Big Daddy from the gas station. He also recognizes the Thing's anguish.

 As DEAD RECKONING, mortars still shooting fireworks, stops at the edge of town. Lance pulls up alongside on his bike. Back in the car Gambit and Pyro watch the T-BIRD roar down main street. The four guerrillas inside laugh gleefully as they use the machine guns to mow down the hapless zombies.

 As the scene unfolds Pete looks around him , almost in disgust "I thought it was gonna be a is a fucking massacre."

 Lance's voice is heard though an open hatch " Kid, these are the toughest guys in the `hood. You can't keep `em from wantin' toget some chuckles."

 Gambit gives lance an irritated look.

 Lance responds "Hey, not me, Boss. You told me not to have any fun, I'm not having any fun at all." Then Turns to Pete "Come with me, kid. I'll show you the ropes."

 Pete climbs out and gets on the back of Lance's motorcycle.

 Gambit shouts to Lance "Where you goin'?" Lance shouts back "To get supplies. Essential supplies. That's job our job, ain't it?"

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 The white moving van pulls up to a supermarket. The zombies in the parking lot, gazing at the fireworks, barely notice the vehicle. Marksmen keep the lot covered as guerrillas carry cases of canned goods out of the supermarket and into the van. The team has this down to a science.

 Gambit's voice comes over one Guerilla's hand-held radio.

Gambit(RADIO FILTER)

 How's the food?

 GUERILLA (Into his radio)

 Lousy, but there'slots of it.

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 DEAD RECKONING rumbles down a side street, its steel skin reflecting the flash of fireworks.

Inside the monstrous machine Pretty Boy drives. Gambit stands beside her speaking into the radio "Number Two, what'syour location?"

 GUERILLA #2 (RADIO FILTER)

 Drug store. Need an aspirin? I got a million of `em.

Gambit(Into radio)

Antibiotics. We need antibiotics.

GUERILLA #2 (RADIO FILTER)

We're set.

Gambit(Into radio)

Number Three? Outside the union gun shop

 Guerrillas load boxes of ammo into a jeep.

 GUERILLA #3(Into radio)

Guns and ammo, Boss.

 Meanwhile down main street

 Harry, the biker with the spear, is making another run toward a walker, who stands mesmerized by the fireworks, when...WHAP! Harry is sent FLYING!

 Dead woman, once pretty, wearing a softball uniform that bears the NUMBER NINE, has used its bat to hit a home run. Harry's riderless motorcycle fishtails up the street and hitsthe side of a building.

 Harry tries to get up. Two zombies attack him. Another motorcycle, driven by Anchor, who looks like Popeye, rumbles up in the nick of time.

He shouts "Harry, jump on!"

 Fighting off the Dead Things, Harry gets on and speeds away.

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Pretty Boy turns a corner. Out the windshield, Gambit sees Lance and Pete, on Lance's bike, joining up with Foxy, a red-haired guerilla on his own motorcycle. The three drive toward the end of town.

Gambit looks at the three "What the fuck?"

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I know kinda sudden end but if I get enough reviews ill continue.


	2. Chapter 2

Land Of the Dead

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story the all belong either to Marvel or the brilliant Geroge A. Romero.

Thanks to addtothenoise for being my first reviewer, this chapter is for you.

Please keep on reviewing and ill keep on writing.

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CHAPTER 2

Lance screeches to a stop at a liquor store with Pete and Foxy. All dismount and start toward the entrance. They stop as DEAD RECKONING pulls up and Gambit and Pyro climb out.

Pyro looking confused sais "Nothin' in there but booze. Booze ain't essential."

Foxy is holding a full bottle of liquor "A jug of good Kentucky goes for fifteen hundred back in town."

Gambit stalks over to Lance and sais "I'm not risking anybody's ass just so you can pick up some side money."

Lance, walking to the store snorts "Not asking you to"

Lance and Foxy start into the liquor store. The doors are wide open. All that can be seen from outside is darkness.

Gambit shouts "Pete! Wait!"

But Pete has followed the others inside.

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Lance unstraps his crossbow and leads the way cautiously into the dark space.

Every subtle sound in the silence puts Pete more on edge. His hand tenses on his gun as shadows loom in front of him. Shadows that could be zombies, but are not.

Behind the dusty glass doors of a once-refrigerated wall- unit, Lance sees a case of Dom Perignon. He goes to the refrigerator. Re-strapping his crossbow, he opens the door. Reaches in for the case of champagne. His two hands grab it.

A third hand also grabs it!

Lance looks up. The refrigerator has no back wall."Fuck!"

A zombie with a Manson-like swastika tattooed in the center of its forehead has stepped in from the shadows of a loading area beyond. It grabs Lance with a terrifying growl.

Lance falls under the weight of the champagne, and the weight of the zombie, which drops on top of him.

They roll, struggling. The Thing holds Lance in a death grip.

At the front of the store, Pete fumbles with his rifle. Foxy shoots at the zombie and misses.

Lance punches the 'Thing' with his free hand. The zombie's head recoils, but lowers again toward Lance, the Swastika looming, drooling teeth baring for a bite.

Lance's eyes flash. For the first time he actually seems him scared of the things.

BLAM! Pyro fires one round, right into the center of the swastika on the Zombie's forehead. The Thing crumples.

Pete looks over to Pyro with surprise "Nice shootin'".

Pyro huffs "Good shootin'. Ain't no such thing as nice shootin'".

A foot kicks the Zombie off Lance, who looks up to see Gambit extending a hand to help him to his feet.

Once having helped his comrade to his feet Gambit speaks "Close one".

Lance smiles "I'm still here, ain't I?"

Everyone relaxes. Lance picks up the case of Dom. The others head toward the front of the store.

In the gloom behind stacks of cartons a rotting hand appears. Reaching.

Lance notices "Shit! Look out, kid!"

The hand grabs Pete around the ankle! Pete turns, raising his

gun. Too late.

A dead uniformed policeman, the skin on half its face stripped down to bone, rips a hole in his shoulder with its teeth!

Pete screams, staggers into a wall, and drops to a seated position on the floor.

Gambit and Pyro spin around at the sound of his cry.

Lance, closest to Pete, pulls his crossbow and fires an arrow through the Zombie's head.

Lance sighs "Fuckin' rookies."

Lance tucks away the crossbow, grabs a box of Cohibas off a counter, and runs outside with Foxy.

Gambit goes to Pete.

He kneels next to the injured man "It's alright. You're gonna be alright".

Pete shakes his head "No. I'm dead. You get bit by one of those things and you become what they are."

Gambit wraps a strong arm around Pete and lifts him.

But before he can do anything Pete quickly plants the barrel of his .45 under his chin and blows his brains out.

Gambit, stunned, lets the corpse slide to the floor. He looks into the rookie's open eye, devastated.

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The white moving van, the T-Bird, and the jeep roll out of town in a convoy.

Trailing them, three sadistic guerrillas on motorcycles roar past, firing a hail of bullets at a dead family on the sidewalk.

The mother falls. Not shot. It has been grabbed and shoved down to the ground by Big Daddy!

Who grabs the little girl next, thrusting her roughly behind the protection of a wrecked car.

The father is last. Big Daddy grabs it from behind, by its hair, just as rounds from an Uzi drill a dotted-line across the Father's neck.

Big Daddy is unhurt, but spattered with blood. Not red, but greenish-black.

The blood of the dead.

As Big Daddy looks at the dead, well more so than before, Father he hears a ripping sound as the Father's neck is pulled apart by the weight of its limp body. The body drops to the street.

The head remains suspended in Big Daddy's hand. His face contorts. His mouth opens and closes, trying to utter sounds.

Big Daddy drops the head, looking down at its befuddled eyes with sympathy. After a moment though, the sympathy is joined by rage.

Big Daddy lifts his right foot and brings it stomping down on the disembodied head, crushing its skull.

The convoy roars off, leaving a cloud of exhaust.

Big Daddy sees Harry's downed motorcycle lying in the street. The butt of an automatic rifle protrudes from a saddlebag.

Big Daddy goes over. Pulls out the rifle. Tests the weight of it in his hand. Curls his finger in through the guard and

pulls the trigger.

BLAM!

A bullet ricochets off a brick wall. Big Daddy is startled at first. Then, he relaxes, realizing the rifle's power. With surprising dexterity, he slings the weapon's strap over his head and across his chest, patting the strap as if comforted by it.

Turning, he looks toward the distant glow of a skyscraper that can be seen on the horizon.

That's the direction the convoy is headed. That's where the bad men came from. That's where he wants to go.

With the city in the distance, Big Daddy starts walking. A zombie falls into step beside him.

But soon there are MORE.

None of them knows where they are going. Or why. All that seems to matter is that they have a leader.

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It's nearly dawn as DEAD RECKONING, emitting tendrils of hot steam from twenty steel nostrils, stands parked in a corner of a fenced-in outdoor yard.

A searchlight sweeps the darkness as guerrillas unload the supplies they took from the town and carry them toward a set of rusty steel doors, above which is a faded sign that reads "SUBWAY (TO CITY)".

In the bustle of activity, harry, the biker who was attacked in town, perspires as he helps unload. He looks ill. Gambit walks past, handing out bottles of beer to the men. "Harry. Beer?"

Harry doesn't answer.

Gambit asks again "Harry?"

Harry spins! Growls! And lunges at Gambit like a beast! He has no time to reach for his gun. The Harry-Thing is strangling him. Smashing the neck of

a beer bottle on the snout of Dead Reckoning, Gambit jams the shattered glass into the Harry-Thing's forehead. Its body drops to the ground.

Pretty boy looks at the body "Got knocked off his bike in town. Must have been bit".

Gambit looks down at the body, eyes flashing.

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Underground

A mile-long subway tunnel extends into blackness. A wide platform runs the length of the tracks, at the head of which a derelict train is parked.

A cargo carrier pulls out, driving along the platform, its flatbed piled with supplies, while another carrier is being loaded with boxes of food, pharmaceuticals, ammunition, and two body bags.

Pyro looks over to Gambit "Shit happens, Remy."

Looking at the body bags with a look of self loathing "Only if you let it."

The first cargo carrier to pull out drives into the tunnel. Ceiling lights spaced far apart stutter on and off.

Two guerillas, Anchor and Mouse, ride on the open flatbed with the cargo.

The tunnel is filled with looming steel shapes that cast menacing shadows. Mouse shifts nervously.

Suddenly PLINK! Something falls on his face! He jumps. Then he realises and wipes his cheek with his sleeve "I hate going under the fuckin' river."

He takes out a joint. Lights up. The match flares.

SPLAT!

Mouse and the match are soaked by water dripping from above.

"FUCKIN' RIVER!"

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Not so sudden end this time hope you all enjoyed.


	3. Chapter 3

Land Of The Dead

Rated M

Disclaimer: I do not own anything everything is the property of either Marvel or George A. Romero

Hey Hey, so 3rd chappie in 3 days, hope you enjoy this one as mush as the other two. Again thanks to addtothenoise for reviewing this story so promptly.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 3

Three rivers flank a triangle of land where A city glows in the sunrise. Once proud and prosperous, its buildings now seem like tombstones. Seven barricaded bridges span the rivers.

An announcement can be heard "Protected on three sides by mighty rivers, the city stands as a monument to man's ingenuity. At the center of it all is Fiddler's Green."

Back inside the subway tunnel.

A TV monitor broadcasts views of a kitchen, a plush living room, a den with a video fire. The announcer continues "Luxury living in the grand old style. Dine at one of three restaurants. Look for that perfect gift in our fabulous shopping mall".

The monitor shows a huge atrium with shops and restaurants.

One of the guerrillas looks on with envy "They make it sound nice". Lance looks over to his comrade "It is nice".

Holding his case of Dom Perignon and his box of Cohibas, Lance looks with Foxy at a monitor mounted to a white-tiled subway station wall. Down the tunnel behind them, the other guerrillas unload supplies from cargo carriers parked on the platform. A sign reads, "GOLDEN TRIANGLE/FIDDLER'S GREEN".

M

f

E

W

Gambit is walking over to where lance is looking at the screen "Lance"

Foxy moves away, leaving Gambit and Lance alone "Two people dead. That kid, Pete. He should be here with us right now".

Lance answers defensively "I didn't kill him. He got bit and he killed himself. Same thing I woulda done. And you!"

Gambit lunges at Lance, eyes flashing dangerously takes hold of his shirt, and slams him against the wall.

Gambit sneers "The fuck are you turning into, man?"

Lance replies "We take money to do nasty shit. Shit that nobody else is dumb enough to do. We go in knowing the risks. The kid did too. His number came up, that's all".

Gambit is looking very unconvinced by his friends logic states "We take the risk to bring in things people need. Not to make a few extra bucks selling liquor. You used to know that".

Struggling Lance replies "Everybody makes their own way. Everybody makes their own fucking way!"

Lance shrugs out of Gambit's grasp. Behind them, the guerrillas continue to unload cargo.

Lance continues his rant "Why daddy...he picked fruit, penny-a-piece. He never went for anything, so he never had anything. I'm gonna have a place, Riley. My own place! And now I got enough money to buy my way in".

The voice from the announcer on the TV floats over " Isn't it time? Isn't it your time? For Fiddler's Green".

Lance looks up at the TV monitor. Gambit follows his gaze, seeing well-dressed people sipping cocktails in a club room.

He sighs "You're dreaming, Lance. They'd never let me in. They'll never let you in. We're the wrong kind".

The image on the TV monitor changes to an overhead view of the city and its rivers. Animation draws a red line along the base of the "golden triangle", a zone known as "THE THROAT". The announcer continues "Bask in the security of a city protected not only by its natural boundaries, but by hand-picked members of its own private militia".

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Outside by "THE THROAT"

Weary troops, sloppily uniformed, guard four rows of electrified, barbed-wire fencing. Zombies cluster by the dozens outside the barricades.

Corpses hang all along the stretch, suspended on the barbs.

A woman's voice is heard "Stench! Ten o-clock!"

A zombie lumbers in and touches the fencing. Sparks fly the zombies's flesh is literally cooked! Boils develop, popping open, emitting smoke. Still the zombie remains animated.

A commanding voice yells "Take its fuckin' face off".

The military woman fires. The Thing is decimated. Its body hangs, welded to the sparking barbs.

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Inside Fiddler's Green

It's morning lance approaches a checkpoint manned by two security guards.

Setting down the champagne and Cohibas, he unstraps his weapons and hands them over.

Lance speaks "Alvers. Supply unit" The guard looks suspiciously at the packages he is holding in his arms "What's in them boxes?"

Lance grins "Essential supplies. For the man upstairs".

l

The Guard takes Lance's weapons and returns a claim check. Lance collects his boxes and steps onto an escalator that carries him up into an enormous atrium. The "mall" we saw on TV. sunlight splashes through glass walls onto box-planted trees. Caged birds chirp seemingly in tune with the Chopin

that lilts over a sound system. Shoppers, expensively over-dressed, stroll past stores. Other residents lunch at "outdoor" cafes. Lance pulls out a handkerchief and wipes the smudges off his face, trying to make himself presentable.

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Outside the "GOLDEN TRIANGLE" - MORNING

Fiddler's Green, a heavily protected high-rise in the center of the city, dominates the skyline. It's where the Fat Cats live, protected from urban decay. The building is surrounded by unoccupied high-rises that define "the golden triangle", a clean section in the center of the city. No ugliness in view.

Gambit and Pyro cross a manicured plaza to a checkpoint manned by two security guards.

Gambit hands over his ID. "Quittin' time, Deke".

Holding up the ID the security guard replies "You're gonna need this".

Walking on Gambit waves dismissively behind him "Nope. When I said quittin' time, I meant quittin' time".

Outside

Gambit and Pyro walk down a street into the city's "ghetto" zone, which is lined with taverns, gambling clubs, strip joints, like a boom town from Alaskan gold-rush days. Buyers and sellers lurk in the shadows, copulating, dealing drugs.

Gambit is welcomed by nearly everyone he passes, greeting them in return with a smile and a nod, handing some bills to a father with a young son, patting an old man on the back.

Pyro speaks "Wanna get a drink, Remy? Just look at me, you can tell I could use a drink".

Gambit smiles "Later. Gotta see a man about a car".

Pyro follows Gambit, who strides into an alley, surprised to find a cadre of rough-looking revolutionaries, led by Logan, a defiant man who stands

on a soapbox. A small audience is gathered in front of him.

He takes a swig from a bottle of whiskey. "How long are you gonna let him push you around? If there was enough of us...if you all would join up with us...we could pull him down off his throne!

Some of the people in the audience nervously shift their eyes

to the Fiddler's Green high rise ten blocks away.

Gambit walks over to the man "You can't fix a place like this, Logan. You just have to get out of it".

The man looks over "We've got the firepower, Gambit. If you and your friends would come in with us, we'd be unstoppable".

Logan holds out his bottle to Riley, who passes it to

Pyro, who takes a swig.

Red on black eyes twinkle in amusement "Everyone's stoppable".

All of a sudden the friendly banter in interrupted by the sound of a boy coughing. Logan's son stands behind him, looking feverish.

With concern in his voice he asks "You alright, son?"

The boy responds "I'm fine, dad".

As Gambit starts past, he stops, pulls something from his pocket, and presses it into Logan's palm. "Antibiotics. For your boy".

Logan looks down with gratitude at a bottle his hand. When he looks up again, Gambit is gone.

-----------------

Turning a corner, Gambit and Pyro stop in front of a rundown garage with a tarp hanging down instead of a door. Gambit pulls it aside and looks in. A hobo lies asleep on a grease-stained floor, curled under some old newspapers.

Gambit looks around agitated "Where's the car?"

The hobo waking up answers "What car?"

Gambit looks at him with disbelief "My new car. I paid for it. I was here yesterday. There were two guys getting it ready for me".

The hobo shrugs "There was nobody here this morning".

Gambit stomps on a broken piece of car equipment "Sonofabitch!"

Pyro look over to his distressed friend "What happened, Remy. Didja get fucked?"

Gambit stands there, grim-faced, eyes dangerously flashing, he speaks in a whisper "Come on".

Back inside Fiddler's Green

PING!

An elevator door opens. Lance, carrying the champagne

and Cohibas, steps out, walks to "PENTHOUSE NUMBER ONE", and

rings the bell.

An instant after he pushes the button the door is jerked open by Todd Tolansky, scrawny looking man in a white butler's jacket. He' wielding a pair of scissors.

Frightened poised to strike."Oh, Mister Alvers. Mister Lensher ain't home and there's some shit goin' down. No lie. I heard...

A scream rings out down the corridor!

Tolansky whitens "I heard that!"

Another scream!

Wringing his hands "Oh, man. Mister L. sure gonna be upset about this".

Lance drops his boxes and moves down the corridor.

Tolansky shouts after him "I called Security. They should be here..."

lance reaches the door to PENTHOUSE NUMBER TWO. It's locked.

Another scream from inside. He flings himself at the door.

The latch splinters out of the frame. The door burst open...

Inside PENTHOUSE NUMBER-TWO

Lance enters a dark foyer. The only light comes from another room somewhere inside. A soft, rhythmic squeak, like a child's swing moving back and forth, echoes through the apartment. It's an eerie, incongruous sound.

On guard, eyes straining, Lance moves inside. The squeak gets louder, the light brighter as he turns a corner and sees a middle-aged man, hanging dead from a homemade noose suspended from a light fixture in the kitchen. The body sways slowly, the harsh glare making the man's face even whiter than it is. A toppled chair lies on the floor at his feet.

Lance stands transfixed for an instant. And in that instant...

All of a sudden he's grabbed from behind! He whirls, ready to kill, but

finds only a middle-aged woman, 60-something, wearing a tailored suit and expensive jewellery, her perfectness blemished only by her hysteria.

She screeches at lance "My Johnny, he killed himself, he killed himself. My Johnny! My Johnny!"

He shakes her, hard. "Keep it together, lady".

Behind them, in the kitchen, unseen, a dazed young man, walks up to the hanging corpse. He rights the toppled chair and steps on it, lifting a paring to knife cut through the noose. "Dad. Oh, Dad" He speaks to himself softly.

The woman asks Lance "Se-Security. Are you Security?"

Lance shakes his head "No, I ..."

"Then, for God's sake, who ARE YOU?!"

She resumes her screaming. In the kitchen, the young man is slicing through the rope when his dead father's eyes pop open! The Young Man is too busy with the rope to notice.

The hanged man's eyes blink. Once. Twice. Three times. Its body twitches.

The hanged man turns, making a move on the young man. The motion increases the strain on the light fixture, which pulls away, sparking, from the ceiling and crashes to the floor, along with the hanged man and his son.

The entire apartment is plunged into darkness. The woman stops her screaming. Almost as soon as she does, a snarl can be heard from the kitchen, followed by another scream, this time from the young man.

Lance rushes to a nearby fireplace and grabs a poker and a

Matchlight , which looks like a pistol, but shoots fire from its tip. He approaches the kitchen, using the flame to light his way.

In the flickering glow, he sees the young man lying on the floor. Chunks have been bitten out of his neck and wrist. The body is convulsing in the last moments of life. The hanged man is nowhere to be seen.

Lance stands over the young man and stabs him in the head with the poker, jabbing the point all the way through. The woman screams again from the kitchen doorway.

With exasperation he shouts at the woman "Shut up! I gotta hear. Where'd he go? Where'd the other guy go?"

Silence.

Lance pulls the poker out of the young man's head.

Shuffling sounds. He follows them to the other end of the kitchen, probing the darkness with his matchlight.

The sounds are louder here. He lifts the poker, ready to strike. Just as he does the back door of the apartment bursts open and a security guard lunges into the kitchen, rifle in hands "Drop it!"

Lance drops the poker and holds up his hands."Hey, no problem man".

Two more security guards come through the apartment's front door and rush into the kitchen.

"No problem, no problem! But there is a problem. There's a dead guy walkin' around in here".

The hanged man appears without warning, attacking one of the guards who just entered, biting half his left cheek, including the eye.

Before his partner can raise his gun, the woman grabs it from him and aims at the hanged man. "You! You selfish bastard! You left me alone here!"

She fumbles with the weapon, not knowing how to make it work.

The bitten security guard starts to lose all strength in his legs. The zombie holds him up, as if waltzing with him, biting him again and again.

Lance takes the gun from the woman and shoots the hanged man.

The bitten security guard is crying "I need help. I need help!"

Lance kills the bitten security guard, too.

The other security guard shouts "You...FUCK!"

Lance turns the gun on the surviving security guard. "You wanna talk about this? I did what I had to do. I only did what I had to do!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"THE ARENA" - DAY

Gambit and Pyro step into the cellar of an old brownstone. Dirt floor. Stone walls. The place is filled with smoke and buzzing with flies. As Gambit and Pyro turn their guns over to two big bruisers inside, a tout named Pietro sidles over."Supply run last night, uh? Bet you have some money in your pocket. I can show you how to turn that money into more money".

Gambit ignores his comment "Pietro. Where's Chihuahua?"

Pietro motions for Gambit to enter "Maybe I can find him for you. Come on in".

Gambit is already in. He has pushed past the Tout and is striding into a fog where gamblers are rushing to place bets with heavily-armed bookies. We're reminded of a cock-fighting joint in a Pancho Villa movie.

Gambit looks around "Lot of action tonight".

Pietro smiles, not in a nice way. "Gotta new kind of game".

Gambit strides toward a cluster of bettors. A very tall man stands among them, wearing a Texas Stetson that sticks up high above all other heads, its peacock feathers poking even higher out of a snake-skin hat band.

Remy grabs him and spins him around.

The man's feet are off the ground. Way off the ground. Far from tall, he's a little person, who has been standing on a platform, wearing a purple satin pimp-suit. He's a Latino, who looks like a Chihuahua. And that's his name. Chihuahua. "Put me down! Put me down!"

Gambit's eyes flash dangerously "What happened to my fucking car?"

The tiny man shrugs "What? They're fixing it up."

Gambit's eyes flash again "I went over to the garage. Your guys aren't there. The car's not there. My dinero's not there".

Chihuahua lift his hand pleadingly "Hey, this is not me. I did not do this to you. I am your friend. Put me down. Come on. I find out what went wrong".

Gambit shakes him again hard, and speaks slowly "Just get me the car, or they'll carry you out of here inside that fucking hat".

------------------------------------------------------------------------

BACKSTAGE - "THE ARENA"

In a dark catacomb, dead men are chained to the walls.

WHAM!

A pole shoots out. A noose on the end encircles the neck of a captive Dead Man and is cinched tight. Two me hold the pole while A third sprays red paint on the thing's face. Another zombie is dragged in and sprayed with black paint.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cursing in Spanish, Chihuahua storms into his office pulls a glock out of a filing cabinet and jams a magazine up its butt.

CENTER RING - "THE ARENA"

Gambit and Pyro drift into a large room that's packed with bettors hooting and hollering like football fans. They're all jammed onto tiered wooden viewing stands arranged around an iron-mesh structure that looks like a lion-tamer's cage.

Gates open. The painted zombies are thrust inside the cage.

Their nooses are released. The gates are locked behind them.

Dead red, alarmed by the colour of dead black's face, reaches out and gently touches the paint. Its fingers come away with blackened tips.

Black follows suit, staining its fingers red. Black licks its hand, spitting when it identifies not blood, but something distasteful.

Bookies drift among the spectators, taking bets with fists full of cash.

Pyro looks around "What are they betting on, Remy?"

Gambit sighs "Red or Black. Who's gonna win the fight".

Pyro turns to Gambit surprised "What fight? Stenches don't fight".

"They do when there's food".

Pietro sidles over.

Gambit asks him "What's on the menu today? Cat or dog?"

Pietro laughs "I told you. Today it's something new".

CLANG!

Another gate opens in the cage. A hush falls as everyone awaits what will come. Including the Dead Men, who gaze with anticipation at the opening.

What comes in is a woman ! Alive, badly bruised, her clothes in tatters.

Despite tarnish, she still looks sexy with her interesting white bangs and, as Gambit noticed, strikingly green eyes .

Last night she was a hooker known as Rogue. Tonight she's fresh meat.

Gambit looks disgusted "Jesus fucking Christ".

The gate slams shut. The Zombies walk toward the woman.

He rushes off. Pyro follows.

Rogue backs up, hits the wall of the cage and, terrified, starts to circle its iron perimeter. The Dead Men flank her. Black is the first to touch her. The crowd howls.

Rogue's terror turns to determination. She punches Black three times in the face. The Thing recoils as she glides outof its grasp.

Gambit and Pyro reach the bruisers who took their weapons.

Gambit shouts "Give us our guns".

"You leavin'?"

He cocks his M-16. "In a little while Mon Ami'".

In the ring, Black reaches for Rogue again. With one lightning-fast move, she kicks it in the chest, sending it flying into Red's arms. Red shoves Black aside.

Black makes another try for the woman. Red grabs its rival.

This time Black hangs on to Red's shirt. The two twirl around in a staggering lampoon of a wrestling match.

Rogue rushes to the side of the cage and starts to climb.

She's agile. Strong. But she almost falls as the cage shakes with the force of Red slamming Black against the mesh.

On their way back through the arena, Gambit and Pyro push through the crowd, trying to reach the center ring.

A goon steps in front of them. "No guns in here!"

Gambit gives him a rifle butt in the face and moves on.

Rogue continues to climb the cage, almost out of reach, but Black grabs one of her ankles, pulling her down and slamming her to the ground.

Black hunkers, drooling, over Rogue. As it's about to bite...

Ratatabang!

A short burst from Gambit's M-16 shatters Black's

collarbone. Cheekbone. Skull. The Thing drops.

Red lunges for Rogue. Gambit kills it with another short burst.

The crowd panics, stampeding toward the exit. Suddenly more

Bullets fly, this time from a glock, fired by Chihuahua, who, in a rage, is pushing through the legs of the fleeing crowd.

He makes it to a clear spot and draws a steady bead on a target Pyro. Chihuahua pulls his trigger. Gambit beats him by an instant, firing the M-16.

Just as Chihuahua's gun goes off a line of bullet holes perforates the little man's belly. The round from his Glock misses Pyro completely.

Gambit runs to the cage, where Rogue stands, trembling, just on the other side of the bars.

He looks at her and asks "You okay?"

She nods gratefully.

Chihuahua is still on his feet. And now he is really pissed.

Not because of the holes in his gut, but because "My suit! You fucked up my new suit!"

Gambit turns to Chihuahua, but doesn't have time to lift the

M-16 before...

BLAM!

The little man Fires at him. Rogue delivers a powerful kick into the flexible fencing, sending Gambit sprawling to the ground and saving him from Chihuahua's round, which misses Gambit...but hits Rogue!

Spun around by the impact, she falls, face down.

Chihuahua continues to fire. gambit Marine-crawls as bullets punch around him, sparking off the cage. Chihuahua keeps coming, keeps firing, until a single shot from Pyro's .45 shatters his skull. He drops like a broken pinata.

Gambit looks up, seeing two other men with guns. Chihuahua's goons. For a moment it seems as if a major shooting match is going to break out. But before it does...

"Hold it!"

Four policemen burst in. The Goons lower their weapons. Gambit runs back to the cage, blasts the lock on the nearest gate, and rushes inside. Rogue's body is lying on the floor.

He suspects she's dead. When her body moves, he suspects worse. He plants the barrel of his M-16 against her temple.

"I'm alright, I'M ALRIGHT!"

Rogue uses her left arm to push herself up to a sitting position. Her right arm is bleeding, up near the shoulder.

Rogue hisses "Fucker got my right arm. I'm a lefty".

They look into each other's eyes, red meets green, both can't seem to look away.

Gambit speaks "Seen you around".

Rogue grins "Seen you around".

A policeman steps over. "The hell happened here?"

Gambit look at the policeman with an air of fake innocence "Somebody shot the little fat man".

He looks at the two "Yeah, I see that. You're under arrest".

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


	4. Chapter 4

Land of the Dead

Rated M

Disclaimer: I don't own anything it all belong to Marvel and George A. Romero, I aint making any money from it im poor.

Thanks again for reviewing , enjoy!

Warning this one is even gorier than the last BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

CHAPTER 4

BOARD ROOM - FIDDLER'S GREEN

A uniformed guard leaves Lance in a pristine white conference room with glass walls overlooking the rotting city far below.

Lance sets the case of champagne and the box of Cohibas on a conference table.

A man stands silhouetted at the window "How is the town?"

Lance replies "Dead".

The man continues "Death intrudes on us even in the Green, I'm afraid. I heard about what happened with my neighbours. I'm grateful for your help".

Lance opens the case of champagne. "Brought you back some presents".

He pulls a bottle out, untwists the wire, and uses his strong thumbs to pop the cork. Foam runs. "You probably want a glass, don't you? Sure, a high-toned man like to drink out of a glass".

Lance grabs a highball glass from a cupboard, pours champagne

into it, and brings it, overflowing, to the Silhouetted Man.

He continues "I got something else, too".

Lance tears open the box of Cohibas. He picks up two cigars, bites off the tips, puts one in his mouth, then, walking back to the Silhouetted Man, puts the other in his mouth, lighting them both with a wooden match that he strikes on his jeans.

The Silhouetted Man speaks "Thank you"

Lance enthusiastically replies "No, thank you! Twenty grand. That's what I got comin' for last night. I never bothered to pick it up".

The man breathes "You didn't?"

Lance laughs "Nope. I left it in the bank. Your bank. With all my other dough. From all those other nights. I got enough now to buy me a place".

"You mean here? In the Green?"

The Silhouetted Man steps away from the window. Expensively dressed, in his early 60s, he is Erik Lensher. He sets down the highball glass Lance gave him, gets out a proper champagne flute, and fills it from the bottle, smiling politely at Lance.

In an apologetic tone he begins "I'm sorry, Mister Alvers, but there's a very long waiting list".

The smile that has been ever present since Mr. Lensher walked in starts to drop "How long?"

Lensher looks at the man in front of him "This is an extremely desirable location. Space is limited".

Lance's face has no trace of emotion "You mean restricted".

Lensher continues "Well, I do have a board of directors, a membership committee that has to approve...

A wave of incomparable sadness sweeps over Lance's face. "I guess it takes more than money to become a "member"".

He looks at the man and speaks softly "Take my advice. Withdraw your funds from the bank and spend them somewhere else".

Lance speaks quietly "Don't do this to me. Don't do this to me".

Lensher starts to apologize "I'm sorry, but..."

At this Lance explodes "No, no, no. Three years! Three years I been cleaning up after you, taking out your garbage, and you tell me I'm not good enough? You're the one who's no good. You are no fucking good. And you are gonna let me in. You know why? Because I know what goes on around here. How many of your fucking "members" know what's in that garbage I take out for you?"

Lance lunges at Lensher, grabs him by the collar. "YOU'LL LET ME IN OR I'LL..."

Lance feels the barrel of a .45 against his waist. Lensher, who has drawn the pistol from his jacket, is still smiling."Maybe we should talk about this when you're less excited".

Lensher presses a button under the table. Three security guards rush in, grab Lance, and drag him away. Lensher stops one of the guards at the door "I won't be needing this man any more".

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

STAIRWELL - FIDDLER'S GREEN

The security guards lead Lance down the stairs. Lance whirls like a Ninja. He slugs one guard, kicks another in the groin, the third in the face, and escapes through a fire door.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

JAIL

Gambit rips off part of his shirt-sleeve and starts to bandage the wound on Rogue's arm.

They are in a jail cell that has brick walls and a small barred window facing a dark alley. Pyro, stripped of all his guns, stares outside longingly.

Gambit speaks "Why you? In that arena. Why did the little fat man throw you in with those things?"

Rogue laughs harshly "It wasn't the little man. It was the big man. The man upstairs. He's got his fingers in everything down here. If you can drink it, shoot it up, fuck it, or gamble on it, it belongs to him. He's just seein' that we get a few cheap kicks so we don't go thinkin' too hard about why he's eating steak and the rest of us are lucky to get the bones".

Gambit doesn't look convinced "Same question. Why you?"

Rogue sighs "They found out I was working with Logan and his people. Tired of eatin' off bones".

Pyro looks over "What can you do? Every place is the same".

Gambit also sighs and leans back against the wall "Ah mon ami' thats were you are wrong. Places with people. I'm gonna find me a place where there ain't no people. North. Canada".

Rogue looks at the man sitting beside her "Wherever you're going, take me with you".

Pyro snorts "He won't. Remy likes to be alone. He might take me. Cuzz havin' me around is pretty much the same as bein' alone. (Glancing at Remy)can make myself useful. And I can shoot".

Rougue's temper flares up a bit "I can shoot. And I can be pretty fucking useful. I had training. I was gonna join the Army. Up the Green. Till somebody figured I'd be a better hooker than a soldier".

Gambit speaks, eyes flashing "Listen cherie! I don't need to hear your story. Everybody's got a story, and I'm tired of hearin' them all!"

She replies "What's your story, Remy?"

They look at each other, clearly attracted.

Gambit is the first to break the gaze "I said everybody has a story. That was wrong. I don't have one. No family, sum guy picked me up on the streets of New Orleans and gave me a place to stay. School. Thieving. Nothing bad ever happened to me..." He turns away "...till everything changed".

Rogue sighs "Everything changed for all of us, sugah. Whether we had a story or not".

A sound outside the window. Pyro glances through the bars "Hey...".

Gambit and Rogue look out the window. Four security men are

chasing Logan into the alley outside. They drive him like an animal against a wall, club him, and drag him away.

"Logan".

Remy instinctively reaches through the window's bars, but there's nothing he can do. It's a helpless feeling.

Pyro looks at the scene infront of him "What are they gonna do? Kill him?"

Rogue shakes her head "Not right away. First, they'll try to get what they can out of him. About people like me".

Remy puts his hand on her back.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a ratty bedroom, Foxy is wakened out of a snore by Lance."We're taking the truck out. Get the guys".

Foxy groans "Gambit?"

Lance pats him, patronisingly, on the head "No, not him. Just the regular guys. Know what I mean?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPOT - Night

High above what was once a car dealership, but is now a fenced-in depot full of vehicles. A huge white face with black cartoon eyes pops into view, attached to a ten foot tall body emblazoned

'TONY BALONEY'. It's one of those vinyl advertising dummies that do the hula as air pumps through it. Tony's arms wave wildly, like a giant zombie, comic yet oddly unnerving as...

BLAM! BLAM!

Bullets hit it in the face and neck. Gus, a young soldier, and his partner Barrett, are shooting outside the sales office of the car-lot-turned-depot. A sign is printed on the window. "BEST DEALS IN TOWN AND THAT'S NO BALONEY!"

Handing Gus a five dollar bill Barrett laughs "You win. You got him in the brain".

SUBWAY TUNNEL - NIGHT

Lance pulls a cargo carrier to a stop along the platform of the tunnel. Foxy, Pretty Boy, Mouse, Anchor, and Scar, the youngest of the team, leap off the flatbed.

DEPOT - NIGHT

The steel doors under the "SUBWAY" sign open and Lance strides out with his team. A depot guard steps forward as the doors close and lock automatically behind them.

He waves "What's up, Lance?"

Lance flashes an official looking piece of paper "Takin' the truck out".

The guard looks confused "You just got back in this morning".

Lance huffs "Nobody gets a day off these days".

The guard takes Lance's paper "Hey, wait a minute this is from yesterday".

Keeping his cool, Lance reaches down "Oh, I must have given you the wrong one. Here..." but not into his pocket. For his gun.

Just before he draws it...shots ring out.

Lance looks around "What's that?"

The guard waves dismissively "Relax. Just target practice".

DEPOT -SALES OFFICE - NIGHT

Gus looks to Barrrett "Double or nothing?"

Barrett nods "Sure".

Gus aims his rifle at the jerking head of 'TONY BALONEY'. As he

is about to fire, there's a sound at his back.

He huffs "Quit scratching around back there. You're tryin' ta fuck up my aim".

Barrett replies "I'm just standin' here. I'm not doin' nothing".

The sound comes again. From the woods that adjoin the lot. Barrett grabs the handles of a klieg light mounted on a pivot and swings it so that it illuminates the tree-line.

There's nothing there. Nothing but branches being slapped by erratic gusts of wind.

Barrett pivots the Klieg light back to its original position, jumping out of his skin when the bright white beam reveals a zombie within arm's length.

Barrett fires! The dead thing drops, only to be replaced by another.

BLAM!

Barrett shoots again. This creature collapses. It is also replaced by another, which is also shot, as...

BLAM!

The top of Barrett's head is taken off by a rifle shot. The rifle was fired by Big Daddy. The barrel is still smoking. In the darkness behind him stands another zombie. Behind him are the shuffling shadows of many more dead things.

Gus screams.

DEPOT - NIGHT

Lance hears the scream "What's that? Screaming practice?"

Suddenly over the radio "Stenches! Jesus! They're all over the place!"

The depot guard turns and runs toward his men. Lance's team

unstrap weapons and get ready for battle.

Lance stops them "Ain't our fight. Stenches are making it easy for us. Let's grab the truck".

Lance and his team sprint across the lot to DEAD RECKONING.

A gunner at a machine-gun battery opens fire on the walkers.

Many of the rounds spark off the wire fencing.

Lance and his team scramble into the vehicle.

Foxy speaks "Should we send up some `sky flowers'?"

Lance shakes his head "No. Those things want to get in here...let `em in".

The walking dead march through machine gun fire behind their "leader". Big Daddy. He is the first to reach the fence surrounding the lot. Pushing against the wire, he is soon joined by a zombie with a baseball bat in his hand. Then others. The fence collapses. The Dead Things swarm into the depot.

DEAD RECKONING pulls out. Rumbling over the section

of fencing the zombies pushed down, it drives into the night.

Soldiers abandon their stations and scatter, shooting wildly.

The one with them knocks one of them cold with its baseball bat.

The soldier falls, losing his M-16. Big Daddy grabs the bat and throws it aside. Picking up the soldier's M-16, he presses the weapon into Number Nine's hands, even arranging Number Nine's fingers on the trigger.

RATATATAT.

With the gun aimed at the ground, Baseball zombie

fires a burst that sends her into a spastic dance. The soldier sits back up. Draws a pistol. Big Daddy grabs the barrel of the still-firing M-16 and guides it along the pavement to the soldier's legs. Bullets march up his groin, belly, chest, and, finally, head. He drops. Another soldier attacks. This time, Baseball zombie aims her weapon purposefully and scores a direct hit.

Other zombies rush at the steel doors that lead down to the subway. They can't get through. Losing interest, they drift slowly away, until their attention is refocused by a grunt from Big Daddy, who is gazing toward the glow of the Fiddler's Green high-rise across the river, closer now than before. The city. That's where he wants to be. That's where he's determined to go.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back inside Lensher's penthouse.

Erik rips a turkey leg off a cooked bird on a platter in front of him and eats. Across the table sits one of his board members, Charles Xavier. Tolansky enters. "Phone call, sir".

"Thank you, Tolansky. I'll take it".

Tolansky brings a radio-phone to the table. Lensher picks up the

receiver and lifts it to his ear "Yes?"

Lances voice comes through "Lensher?"

Erik tenses, just enough for Xavier to notice.

"Ah. The one that got away" .

Lance continues "You said we should talk when I was less excited. I'm a lot less excited now".

Being a man of business Lensher understands "What do you want, Mister Alvers?"

Inside DEAD RECKONING

Lance speaks into a radio "I can't have a place in the Green, fine. I'll go find another place. But you know what I'm gonna need? Money. I want my money out of your bank. And I want the rest of the money out of your bank. And if you don't give it to me, I'm gonna blow you out of your fuckin' ivory tower. I've got Dead Reckoning".

Back inside the penthouse.

Lensher closes his eyes "That's unfortunate".

"Put the money on a boat and send it across the river to the South Side. Tenth Street Pier. One man to drive the boat, no more. You've got till midnight. Four hours. I won't be there. Dead Reckoning won't be there. But I'll know if it happens. I'll know if it doesn't happen".

CLICK!

Lance hangs up.

Xavier speaks "Trouble?"

Erik laughs "In a world where the dead are returning to life, the word `trouble' loses much of its meaning. He wants money".

"Pay him".

"We don't negotiate with terrorists. There are other options".

Staring out the window onto the dead city Erik Lensher contemplates.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

JAIL - NIGHT

CLANG!

A security guard opens a cell door. "Which one of you is LeBeau?"

Remy, Pyro, and Rogue exchange glances. "What now?"

In a boardroom.

Lensher sips a Scotch. xavier is present, with a middle aged board member named Nick Frost and Scott Summers, who

is young and ambitious. All of them are nervous, pacing. A door opens and Remy is ushered into the room.

Lensher welcomes him "Mister Denbo. Come in. Can I offer you a drink?

"I don't drink".

"Well, then...please sit down".

Gambit looks around "Nobody else is sitting. I think I'll just stand here, like the rest of you. While you tell me why I'm standing here".

Lensher smiles "We need you to repossess a vehicle that belongs to us. The vehicle you designed, Mister Lebeau. Dead Reckoning has been stolen. By your second in command. I want him captured. Or killed. And I want my two-million-dollar piece of equipment returned".

Gambit looks surprised "The truck".

Lensher nods "Which has guns. Big guns. That could do a great deal of damage if he were to aim them at this city"

The young man shrugs "Why don't you just send out your troops?"

Erik is getting impatient "I don't want to lose them. I could send five hundred men against that thing and they'd all come back in body bags. It's your vehicle. Alvers was your man. You might be able to get close enough to...do what has to be done". He pauses to refill his glass "Do this for me and I'll grant you something in return. Residence in the Green".

Remy shakes his head "Not me. That's what Lance wanted, and you didn't give it to him, did you? That's why he's out there waving a cannon at your ass".

Lensher won't admit that Gambit's right, but he looks at him

with a glimmer of respect.

Remy continues "Give me one of those vehicles, over in the depot, weapons, and enough ammunition to go north".

It's Lensher's turn to look surprised "But...there's nothing up north".

Gambit smirks "That's the idea".

Lensher waves his hand dismissively " Alright. You've named your price. An easy one to pay".

Remy puts his hand up "One more thing. My friends. Both of them. They go with me".

"Take them".

He looks at Gambit, a hint of desperation behind his eyes. "Can you find Dead Reckoning? Quickly?"

The younger man cocks his head to one side "How quickly?"

"By midnight".

Gambits eyes flash and he smirks "I have a way".

INDUSTRIAL STREET - NIGHT

DEAD RECKONING rumbles along a dark street, plowing into a derelict car, knocking it aside and rolling it down a small embankment, pinning three dead things beneath.

Lance's team laughs raucously at the fate of the zombies.

Lance looking tense shouts "Knock it off!"

Big Daddy steps out of the darkness, watching the lights of DEAD RECKONING recede. He hears desperate squealing coming from under the toppled car.

He lumbers down the embankment. Pushes on one of the upturned tires. He can't turn the car by himself. He looks back to the road. Grunts.

Zombie baseball girl and others of Big Daddy's gathering force hurry to the car. They push. The car rolls over, freeing the three zombies. One of them used to be a Butcher. Still wearing a blood-stained apron, carrying a meat cleaver, he looks at Big Daddy with something resembling gratitude.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIDDLER'S GREEN WEAPONS STORAGE - NIGHT

Soldiers pass out monster weapons to Remy, Pyro, and Rogue. Riley straps on a K-90. Pyro turns one down "I like the iron I already got".

The soldier insist "This piece fires fourteen rounds a second".

Pyro unstraps his own Remington. A la Sergeant York, he licks his thumb. Wets the sight. And blasts a cockroach climbing on a wall twenty feet away.

"I don't norm'ly need fourteen rounds".

Rogue motions the guard to hand the weapon over "I'll take that gun".

The soldier gives her a sleazy look "Can you handle it?"

Rolling her eyes "Better'n you. The safety's off".

The soldier checks the gun. The safety is off. He clicks it on and embarrassedly hands the weapon to Rogue.

Gambit speaks to his friends "You guys don't have to come out with me if you don't want to".

Rogue ties her hair into a messy ponytail, white strands framing her face she checks her gun clip "I'd feel like a dick if I didn't".

Pyro nods enthusiastically "Me too. Just look at me you can tell I'd feel like a dick".

The young girl sighs "Some shit, ain't it? Goin' out to save a place we don't give a fuck about"

Gambit looks at her "It's not the place. It's the people in it"

"Mister Lebeau".

Tearing his gaze away from Rogue, Remy turns. Lensher and Xavier enter with several others.

"Your friends are going out with you. I want some of my friends to go along, as well". Erik turns to the people standing behind him "Manolete".

A Hispanic man steps forward.

"That's how I am called...Manolete. After the bullfighter".

Lensher continues "Teahouse".

Teahouse steps forward. A mean-looking Asian right out of Mortal Kombat. He joins his hands, as if in prayer, and bows.

"Pillsbury.

Pillsbury is a woman, a Sumo-sized Samoan, six hundred pounds

and seven feet tall, swaggering, decked out in a clatter of

fighting gear.

Rogue looks at them, impressed "Damn".

Pillsbury speaks with a voice as deep as the Mindanao trench. "I come here to do sumthin'. Not stann aroun'. Why we stann aroun'? Less go do sumthin'".

10TH STREET PIER - NIGHT

A long dock juts into the river. DEAD RECKONING stops beside it. Mouse jumps out. Lance stands in an open hatch.

Mouse looks around nervously "Don't leave me alone here long".

Lance pats him on the back "At midnight. Give me a call. Let me know if we're rich or not".

Mouse nods, running off to hide in a boat shed.

DEPOT - NIGHT

The steel doors to the subway tunnel open. Gambit and his team

step out. The depot has been devastated. Fires Burning.

Fences down. Only 'TONY BALONEY' moves, still waving spookily.

Open mouthed Pyro looks around "Geez. Lance made a mess".

Gambit speaks softly but his eyes are blazing "Lance didn't do all this".

Clouds of thick black smoke from the fires billow across the depot, restricting visibility. Ever-shifting openings in the clouds reveal glimpses of torn body parts.

"Stenches have been at this place".

He leads the way into the depot, his M-16 at the ready.

Behind him, all eyes peer nervously into the smoke. Everyone speaks in hushed tones.

Manolette looks at the floored fence "When the truck pulled out, it must have knocked the fence down. That's how they got in".

Gambit shakes his head "That fencing was pushed in from outside".

Teahouse speaks up "You know how many stenches it would take to do that?"

Gambit replies "There's a thousand of them out there for every one of us".

Pyro smiles nervously "Good thing we're smarter".

Rolling her eyes "Look who's talkin'".

Remy turns to Rogue "They're getting smart. I saw it, last time out. They're learning how to work together".

Thoughts darken. So does the smoke, which billows thicker,

virtually blinding the team. Sounds come. The moaning of the

wind. The popping of burnt metal and wood.

Teahouse looks around "What do they want?"

Rogue looks back as she walks. The zombies have taken down another section of the depot fence, beyond which lies a suburb. Beyond which is the river. Beyond which is the glow of the FIDDLER'S GREEN HIGH-RISE.

Realization enters her features "They want the city".

Remy nods "The city is us. They're after us. We pissed `em off one too many times".

Manolette laughs "They'll never get across the river".

Pyro puts his hands together and looks up "Thank Heaven".

Gambit smiles at his friend "Gotta love the guy. He still believes in Heaven. Anyone got a radio?"

Teahouse pulls a Motorola from his belt. Just as he tosses

it to Remy, they hear...GROWLING!

The team draws their weapons, standing in a loose circle, their backs to each other, guns searching for a target. Darting eyes peer into the void. More noises emanate from somewhere. Everywhere.

Slowly Pyro unstraps his Remington. Licks his thumb. Wets the

sight of the rifle.

Rogue whispers "Why do you do that?"

Pyro whipers back "Catches the light. Right now it's moonlight. Lets me see where I'm aimin'".

BLAM!

Pyro fires! A single shot into the black smoke.

Rogue jumps "The hell you shooting at?

He nods at the smoke "That thing".

A zombie steps out of the smoke! Before anyone can react, it grabs Rogue's shoulder from behind! She whirls around. Pulls away. Is about to shoot when she sees an entry wound on the left side of the Thing's forehead.

"Off-center. But I got him".

The Thing relaxes its grip and drops at Rogue's feet.

Manolette is hysterical "There's more of `em out there. I can hear `em. THERE'S MORE!"

There are shuffling sounds in the smoke. Manolete backs away.

Pillsbury grabs him. Slaps him, hard, across the face "If they is more, we gonna need mo guns. Pull `em out n'stann up wid us, like de man you ain't".

Riley lifts Teahouse's Motorola and pushes "Send" "Gambit. Calling the Green".

FIDDLER'S GREEN BOARDROOM

Xavier's face looks very alarmed "What?"

A trooper, equally alarmed, is reporting "Wiped out! That's what he said! LeBeau! He said the depot was wiped out by stenches!"

Lensher's face in unreadable "Thank you. Keep us informed".

DEPOT - NIGHT

Gambit and his Team move through drifting smoke. Vehicles are

scattered about. They stop at the T-BIRD. There are no keys in the ignition.

"Gotta go get the keys, Remy" sais Pyro to his friend.

Remy looks across the lot to the charred ruin of a shack. Tire fires burn around it. Debris smolders.

He sighs "Ain't no keys to get mon ami'. Melted".

"Screw keys. Hot wire the fucker".

Manolette climbs in and goes to work under the dash.

Pillsbury looks at him "He feelin' better since I hit `im".

Suddenly, Pyro draws his .45 and fires at Rogue BLAM! The

bullet buzzes just above her ear, blowing a wisp of white hair as zombie behind her drops, a hole in its head.

"Thanks, Pyro. That was useful" She breathes quite startled.

The wind shifts and black smoke envelopes them.

Manolette's infuriated voice "I can't see!"

Gambit pulls out a flashlight and shines it under the dash.

The team fans out around the T-Bird. The smoke is so thick they can't make out anything. Including each other.

Pyro peers into openings that shift on the breeze. What he doesn't see, what he can't see, is what's behind him.

A female walker, wearing the soiled and tattered remnants

of a bridal gown. The fabric seems to glow in the smoke.

The bride shuffles toward Pyro. No one sees it. Just as it opens its mouth to bite...

BLAM!

Rogue shoots her bullet cuts closer than the one Pyro fired, clipping off the top of his ear before dropping the bride.

Rogue smiles "Even-Steven".

Pyro in pain "Not! That hurt! I didn't hurt you!"

Manolete fumbles with colored wires under the dash.

"Hurry up mon ami".

Impatiently Pillsbury eggs on "Yellow to red!"

Teahouse looks at her disbelievingly "What the fuck does a Samoan know about hot-wiring cars?"

Pillsbury explains "Five thousand cars. Stole. Every year in Samoa".

Manolette snorts "Fifty thousand in Mexico".

Pillsbury nods "Mexico got a million cars. Samoa got five thousand. Every one. Stolen."

The T-Bird's engine revs.

Manolette jumps "I GOT IT! LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

Remy leads the team into the T-Bird. Manolete starts to get out from under the dash. As Teahouse settles into a seat by the door...

Something heavy and wet smacks his shoulder. It's a forearm it drops onto Teahouse as if thrown at him.

"God! Oh, GOD, WHAT'S THIS?!"

Teahouse hurls the bloody thing onto the asphalt. Shockingly, two arm ssprings back, grabbing Teahouse's shoulders! A headless corpse is behind him. He relaxes but all of a sudden a jolt from the headless corpse brings the head, which is hanging from a piece of skin, crashing on to Teahouse's neck and takes a great big chunk off.

Pyro shoots it.

Manolete climbs up behind the wheel and...VROOOOOM!...pedal to the metal he pulls out of the depot. Rogue glances at

Teahouse, then, wind in her hair, leans in close to Remy.

She softly speaks "How long does he have?"

He looks at her "I had a brother. Real brother, by birth. Bit. Hung on for six days. Before he turned. I was the one had to shoot him".

Rogues lifts one eyebrow "And you said nothin' bad ever happened to you".

Remy shakes his head "That happened to my brother".

She looks into his eyes "But you kept going".

He can't look away "Got to, right?"

She smiles "Yup. Dead is dead. And that ain't you. And that ain't me".

Rogue turns to Teahouse. "Sorry, man. I truly am".

She draws her .45, aims at Teahouse, and fires.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you like? Did you enjoy I hope so, please keep on reviewing and Ill write more.

Toodle pip!


	5. Chapter 5

Land of The Dead

Rated M

Disclaimer: I owe nothing all belongs to Marvel and George A. Romero

Author's Note: Sorry for the slight delay my computer went a bit bonkers and Ive had to work loads in the past few days soooo here is another chapter hope you like it. Thanks to everyone that reviewed you make me want to continue so keep on reviewing!

Enjoy!!!

CHAPTER 5

FIDDLER'S GREEN BOARDROOM - NIGHT

Erirk Lensher paces with a cigar, passing Xavier, Summers,

and Cliff.

"I recognize that some of you are concerned. We've been threatened by a disgruntled employee. I've sent people out to take care of the problem. However, should something go wrong, I want to assure you that measures have been taken. I've established outposts. With food and supplies to support us on our way".

Alarmed Cliff interrupts "On our way? To where?"

Lensher continues "Alternate sites have been chosen. Air transport has been arranged. For us and our families. As well as necessary support personnel".

Still not fully convinced Cliff asks "What about all the others?"

Lensher looks at Cliff, as if expecting him to understand.

He sighs "All the others can be replaced. by others".

"But..."

This time Lensher interrupts him "Cliff, let me talk to you for a moment".

Lensher leads Cliff into an alcove on the far side of the room, shutting two pocket doors made of sandblasted glass. Xavier and the others can't hear, but can see, Lensher and Cliff.

On the other side of the doors, Lensher leans close to Cliff,

smiling, his eyes blinking a bit too rapidly.

"You interrupted me. I was just talking about how people can be replaced. You don't want to be replaced, do you?"

Cliff shakes his head nervously "No".

Lensher's smile widens "No, and I don't want to replace you. You have promise. A day may come when you earn yourself some responsibilities. Right now, the responsibilities are mine. All the responsibilities. It was my ingenuity that took an old world and made it into something new. I put up fences to make it safe. I hired soldiers and paid for their training. I keep the people on the streets away from us by giving them their games and vices. It costs me money! But I spend it because the responsibility is mine! Now do you understand "responsibility"?"

Cliff continues in that same worried tone "Yes, but..."

Lensher shakes his head "No buts".

"But..."

Lensher looks disappointed. Taking Cliff by the arm, smiling again, he leads him over to an outer door and opens it. An armed security guard stands in the corridor outside.

"Take him out with the rest of the garbage. I won't be needing this man anymore".

At the conference table, Xavier sees the light coming in from the outer corridor, better defining the silhouettes as the security guard drags Cliff away.

Xavier turns to Summers "Pretty soon it's going to be one of us".

DEAD RECKONING - NIGHT

Lance watches a dead gardener through the windshield.

"If I don't have this truck, I'm no different to Lensher than that poor Mexican bastard out there".

Lance looks at his watch, 11:20

Foxy looking dejected "He's never gonna pay".

Lance waves a hand dismissively "He knows it's his ass if he doesn't".

Lance slides open a small window, grabs his crossbow, and

shoots the Gardener in the head.

A solid wall of wood. Big Daddy, NUMBER NINE, and other zombies push against it. The wood holds.

Big Daddy turns, surveying his troops. Focusing on the Butcher. On the meat cleaver it has in its hand. Big Daddy pounds on the wood, demonstrating. Points at the meat cleaver. Pounds again. The Butcher gets it. Approaches

the wall.

HACK!

The meat cleaver chops into wood, splintering it. From the other side of the wall the wood splinters to reveal Big Daddy's eyes staring through it at Fiddler's Green, looming closer than it was before, though still across the river.

MCKEE'S ROCKS - NIGHT

On a small, electronic unit, the size and appearance of a "Game Boy". An LED light shows a blinking red dot moving along a map.

Gambit looks up from the tracker "Turn left up here".

Rogue, driving the T-BIRD now, makes the turn. The car blows through a deserted town, moving fast. Gambit notices that Rogue is effected by the desolation she sees.

His red eyes flash slightly "How long since you been out here?"

She shakes her head "Never been out. Lived in the city since...it was a regular city".

Suddenly he grabs her arm "Pull over".

Rogue surprised "Huh?"

His eyes flash dangerously "You said you were going to make yourself useful. Right now what I could use is for you to pull over".

She does. The T-Bird stops along a road bordered by a marsh

thick with tall cat tails. Unexpectedly, Gambit stands and

points his automatic at Pillsbury and Manolette.

"Right mes ami' I made a deal with your boss. Find Lance. I'm gonna do it. Keep him from blowing up the Green. I'm gonna do it, I don't want people to get hurt. Bring back Dead Reckoning... Sorry. That's where I stop. I didn't ask him for much, just guns, ammo, and a car. I've got the guns. I've got the ammo. And if I find Dead Reckoning I'm gonna have the best fucking car that's ever been built, and I'm taking it to Canada. If any of you on't like that idea..."

Gambit reaches down and opens the passenger door. Manolete

looks out and sees the cat tails moving. Three zombies are

slogging through the marsh.

Manolette gulps "Some choice".

"Good choice. I like see Canada".

Pillsbury reaches out and slams the car door closed again.

Gambit looks over to his friend "Pyro, keep these two covered".

Pyro pulls his .45.

Gambit turns around his seat, glancing down again at the tracker in his palm. The red dot has moved on to another map.

He looks to Rogue then back ahead "Take a right onto Route Six".

Rogue pulls out, she speaks "This is what you were thinking about all along. You got me out here figuring I'm a boy scout, and now you're telling me we're just stealing a fucking car?"

Gambit takes his eyes off the red dot "You have a problem with that?"

Rogue grins "No. I like the way you think".

Pyro's voice pipes in from the back seat "I like the way he thinks, too. Just look at me you can tell I like the way he thinks".

Gambit focuses back on the tracker "Take another right".

Looking over to the man sitting next to her "How do you know which way you're going?"

Gambit holds up the tracker. It beeps softly as the red dot

shifts onto another map.

"I built a homing device into Dead Reckoning. If Lance's anywhere within ".

DEAD RECKONING stops on a long road, at the end of which stands a military complex. The beam of a searchlight sweeps back and forth over the buildings, a sign of life.

Lance checks his watch. 11:29. He speaks into a transmitter "Mouse. Anything?"

10TH STREET PIER

Mouse stands in the shed, holding a transmitter of his own "Not yet. No boat. No money. No nothing.

Pretty Boy snorts "I'm telling you, he's never gonna pay".

Lance, in an exasperated tone, explains "That's why we're here.

He looks out the window to the searchlight sweeping over the military complex in the distance.

Rogue drives as Gambit monitors his tracker.

His eyes flash "Shit. He's going to Ross Park".

"What's there?" says Rogue.

Gambit looks to her "Powder magazine. Where they keep the big boomers. Rockets. For Dead Reckoning's cannons".

10TH STREET PIER - NIGHT

Mouse looks at a grimy window as the shadow of a zombie stops just beyond the glass. Mouse fires a burst shattering the window and dropping the Walker.

Silence.

Mouse takes a tentative step toward the window. A scratching sound. Something climbs up onto the sill from outside. Mouse raises his gun, but hesitates when he sees it's a child.

A girl scout.

She died at age nine, still wearing her uniform. Now, "it's" voracious. It grabs Mouse's gun-hand. The weapon fires harmlessly into the floor. Mouse

is about to be chomped when a stalagmite of glass in the top of the shattered window drops, piercing the Girl Scout's head.

Mouse runs screaming to the door, where he is grabbed by another zombie. And another. As he is torn apart, he sees that there are dozens more.

RIVER - NIGHT

As the moon sheds some light on the otherwise black night, an army of the dead is lining the riverbank for as far as the eye can see.

Big Daddy looks on. Only the river now flows between he and his goal: Fiddler's Green, so near and yet so far.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHAM!

The door slams behind Lensher as he enters the foyer. TOLANSKY emerges from the rear "Any word from Mister LeBeau, sir?"

Without even looking at his servant "No. Pack us up. We might have to be leaving".

Tolansky's brows furrow "In the helicopters?"

He stops "We'll only need one of them".

Pretty Boy eases the vehicle up the road to the complex of buildings: ROSS PARK, the sign says, a sprawling munitions depot. The searchlight continues to sweep across the night, but no one is manning it. It's mounted to an automatic rotator on the roof of the main building.

Foxy looks out the window "Looks like no one's here".

The gates stand wide open. There's no sign of life. Lance punches a button. The side hatch opens. "Foxy. You're elected. Get out there and see what the fuck..."

Foxy moves out through the open hatch.

"Somebody go out and help".

Scar grabs his weapons "I'll go".

One of the dead face first into the water, dropping

out of sight. Another falls. Big Daddy looks at the spot where his brothers fell in. He looks for a long time, cocking his head like a puppy trying to understand a high wind.

The first Dead Thing slowly rises out of the water. Then the Second. They stand, waist deep, in the shallows. Big Daddy gazes down at the water, a concept dawning. Then, with grim purpose, he steps deliberately off the low wall.

Hitting the river, he manages to stay on his feet. Standing, waist deep, with the others, he scoops up water with his one good hand.

Sniffs it.

Tastes it.

He looks up.

He sees the city light reflecting in the river. He tries to express his thoughts. All that comes from his mouth is a series of inarticulate moans.

He's incapable of transmitting his idea. So he does what he's been doing all along. He leads. He walks toward the city. Out of the shallows. Into deep water. Over his head.

There are car tires, garbage cans, a rusted anchor, a sunken motor boat, hundreds of beer bottles and

A thousand dead things...

Walking...

On the river bed...

Following Big Daddy through the debris.

A knock on a door is answered by a man who looks a bit too greasy to be important. Xavier is outside "How much is Lensher paying you and your men?"

The man answers "Four hundred a day. Each".

Summers speaks "I'll pay you five thousand a day. Each."

The car speeds down the road with Rogue at the wheel.

Gambit looks at his watch. 11:40.

The unmanned searchlight scans the yard, casting intermittent

shadows.

Scar looks around "This place is important. The men here wouldn't just walk out".

Foxy also looking around " Maybe they had no choice".

They move toward a large storage building where a door swings in the night breeze, slapping alarmingly against the wall. Beyond the opening is a black maw, like a velvet curtain, past which nothing can be seen.

Foxy furrows his brow "There could be stenches in there.(Readying his M-16) Got a flashlight?"

Scar nervously pulls out a flashlight. As he clicks on the beam, he loses his grip. The flashlight drops to the ground. Scar reaches for it. His fingers tip it and it spins. The beam washes across his shoes. Then Foxy's shoes. Then find another shoe.

Someone else's.

Gasping, Scar grabs the flashlight, shining the beam up onto what should be a leg, but there's nothing left above its bloody shin.

PLIP! PLOP! PLIP!

Beads of blood hit the floor, dropping from the dark figure of a soldier who is approaching. Scar aims the flashlight at the figure's face, recognizing "Brubaker! You okay? Where's the other guys? What happened here?"

Brubaker keeps coming. He has bullet holes in his chest, but they're not what's dripping blood. It's another half-eaten foot that he's carrying. Brubaker is dead.

Foxy shoots him.

Foxy and Scar move into a hangar-like space. Pitch black. Except for the mote-filled beam, from Scar's flashlight, which illuminates a supply of enormous cannon shells, lined up on storage shelves. The "JOHNSONS".

Six dead soldiers are hunkered in the shadows, eating the remains of other dead soldiers.

Foxy grimly raises his weapon. As he squeezes the trigger,

the sound of the gunfire.

Back inside Dead Reckoning Anchor and Scar wrestle TWO "JOHNSONS" into place.

Lance smiles "That's good. That's all we need".

Foxy looks at Lance "To blow up the Green".

The T-Bird rumbles along a road lined with large homes, once prized for their panoramic views. Gambit's tracker beeps "Lance's moving out. Looks like he's heading right for us".

Gambit looks outside. Beyond the homes he can see the city.

Realization hits his face "Shit. Off this hillside...they can shell the Green. Pull in! There!"

Rogue pulls into a driveway, stopping the T-Bird in the shadow of one of the houses.

Gambit looks at Rogue "They'll be coming up this road."

In a walk-in steel-walled safe, Lensher pulls out banded stacks of money and stuffs them into two Prada duffels.

One head rises out of the river. It's Big Daddy, rivulets of water running down the creases of his face. Another head rises. And another. Baseball girl and the Butcher. More and more heads break the surface. The water fills with bodies emerging from the deep. Hundreds of them. The city lights reflect off their wet clothes as the army of the dead clambers up a boat ramp on the city side of the river.

Gambit and his team wait in the shadows of the driveway they

pulled into. They hear the distant growl of DEAD RECKONING.

Looking over a hedge-row, Gambit can see high beams advancing "Y'all stay" here.

Rogue looks worried "You're goin' out there alone? You need our guns".

Gambit shakes his head "Dead Reckoning's got steel skin an inch thick. You can't shoot your way in. I'm hopin' I can talk my way in".

Manolette looks at Gambit suspiciously "He's gonna steal the truck and leave us here".

Pyro slaps him in the shoulder "Gambit'd never do that. Just look at him, you can tell he'd never do that".

Remy looks to his friend "Keep an eye on the hatches. If I get in, I'll try to leave one open".

Gambit takes off. Pyro looks torn. He wants to go with

him, but he has to keep Pillsbury and Manolete covered.

Pillsbury notices "I like dat man. You go help `im. I take care of dis sissy".

Moving fast for a big woman, pounds Manolete's temple with a mighty fist. He drops like a lead weight.

The door to the roof opens and the greasy man from "downtown" steps out of a fire stair with another man. Xavier remains inside the door.

One of them speaks "I don't know about this. I mean...leavin' people behind..."

Xavier interrupts him "Lensher was gonna leave people behind. So we're leaving him".

The Greasy Men go trotting across the rooftop. As they climb

into two helicopters, we realize that they are pilots.

Gambit walks down the road. The growling of the diesels is getting louder, the glow from the high-beams brighter. Gambit is startled by a noise behind him. He whirls around and sees Pyro approaching "Everything's cool back there".

Gambit is about to object, when DEAD RECKONING comes rumbling

around a corner a hundred yards down the street. Gambit checks

his watch again. 11:52.

Pyro smiles "Too late to send me back".

Gambit sighs "Put on your Sunday smile. Try to look friendly".

I am friendly. Just look at me you can tell I'm friendly".

In the cab, Pretty Boy eases off the gas. Lance looks out the windshield as the headlights strike the two men "LeBeau. And his idiot. Stop. Gimme the mike".

The vehicle crunches to a stop forty yards away. Pretty Boy hands Lance a microphone. Lance speaks into it "How'd you get up here, Gambit?"

Gambit grins "Grabbed the T-Bird"

"What are you doin' up here?"

"Tracking you. With this".

Gambit holds up his tracker. Lance looks surprised.

Remy's grin widens "Truck's got a little transmitter in her belly. Sorry I never told you".

Lance sighs "You were always a smart guy, smarter'n me".

"You went and took off without inviting us along".

"You weren't around to get invited. Anyway, I figured you wouldn't

want in on this".

Gambit's eyes narrow "We want in on anything you got goin'".

Lance taps Pretty Boy on the shoulder "Open up".

Foxy jumps in front of Lance "What're you, nuts?"

Lance shouts "Open up!"

Outside Rogue and Pillsbury watch from the shadows as a hatch opens.

Gambit and Pyro step on board. Pretty Boy is at the controls. Foxy, Anchor, and Scar stand nearby. Pyro is grinning like a badly scarred Cheshire cat.

Lance looks oddly at Pyro "The hell you so happy about?"

"Gambit told me to smile. So's you'd let us come in".

"I'd rather have you in here than out there".

KA-CHUNK!

Lance lifts his crossbow, pressing a loaded arrow up under Gambit's chin. Blood trickles.

"Who's the smart one now?"

Pyro is about to react when he feels Foxy's M-16 poking into his back.

Lance looks into Gambit's red on black eyes "Thought you were gonna quit. Here you are still working for the man. Lensher sent you out here, didn't he? To get the truck back".

"Yes"

Rogue and Pillsbury creep forward, freezing as they see Gambit with the crossbow at his neck. Rogue aims her K-90 at Lance, rustling branches as she moves "That man pulls the trigger, he's dead".

Lance cocks his head outside "Who else is out there?"

"Lensher sent some guys with us. We took care of `em. I know you been up to Ross Park. Picked up some Johnsons, huh?"

Lance nods "Yup. Pretty Boy, set the cannons".

With great whirring sounds, the vehicle's largest guns begin to rotate slowly toward the city across the river.

Rogues eyes widen "We're running out of time here. C'mon, Gambit. Make yourself useful".

Manolete begins to stir on the ground beside THE T-BIRD.

Inside Gambit keeps cool "Don't do it, Lance".

Lance shakes his head "Lensher's got it coming".

Rogue and Pillsbury watch as the gun turret continue to turn, the cannon barrels angling toward Fiddler's Green.

Pretty Boy lifts a clear cover off a red firing button.

Gambit continues "Hit the tower square, you'll kill a lot of innocent people. Miss and hit the city, you'll kill a lot of our friends. Your beef's with Lensher, not them".

The turret on the roof groans as the cannons rotate.

Lance is not swayed "He's killed a lot of our friends. Every week we took out the garbage, you and me. Every month I took out Lensher's garbage. People he wanted off the streets. He turned me into a goon and then he pissed all over me! Foxy, keep `em covered".

The turret stops, cannons aimed directly at the Green.

Lance moves to the red firing button "When the smoke clears, I'm gonna roll in, hit the bank, take the money, and pick up any other fancy shit I can get my hands on".

"There won't be any fancy shit left. And money burns".

Lance smiles "Not when you keep it in a safe".

Manolete pulls one of the machine guns out of its mount on

the T-Bird. Shouldering it, he creeps toward DEAD RECKONING.

Inside the truck a clock is ticking.

4...3...2...1...Lance reaches down and pushes the button.

The gun barrels are cold. Silent.

Lance punches the button again. Again. Nothing happens.

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

Lance's eyes fall to the tracker in Gambit's hand.

"You did something, didn't you? With your FUCKING TOY!"

Gambit pushes another button on the tracker. Outside two steel locking rims swing up to cap the cannons. Just beyond the barrels Manolete closing in on DEAD RECKONING, raising his machine gun. A zombie advances behind him.

Lance charges Gambit. Grabs him around the throat "Fix it!"

"Not a chance".

Gambit tosses the tracker out the open hatch. Lance reaches

out after it.

Manolete has the machine gun aimed at DEAD RECKONING'S open

hatch. Where Lance is standing. Out of the corner of his eye, Gambit sees Manolete's machine gun barrel flash in the moonlight.

Manolete fires

Gambit pushes Lance out of the way just in time. He drops from

the hatch onto the pavement, wounded in the shoulder.

The Zombie starts to rip Manolete apart. Rogue shoots him in

the head. Then she and Pillsbury open fire on the Walker, destroying it.

Foxy, distracted by the mayhem, lets Pyrp get the drop on him. Anchor and Scar go for their guns. Gambit unslings his M-16 and holds them at bay "Easy boys".

Gambit looks at the clock on the control panel. 12:01. Pyro follows his gaze.

Pyro breathes a sigh of relief "Geez. We just made it".

Gambit clicks the transmitter on "Remy LeBeau calling the Green".

BING!

Lensher steps off the elevator, carrying his two Prada bags full of money. A two-way radio in his pocket rings "Yes?"

"We got Alvers".

Sagging with relief "I owe you, Mister LeBeau".

"I'm glad you feel that way. Because I'm taking your fucking truck".

Lensher rushes in with his bags, dropping them beside other luggage that is already packed.

Tolansky looks scared "Mister Lensher, sir. I dunno what's happening, sir, but it sounds bad".

The windows are sealed so the NOISE Lensher hears is muffled, but it is definitely the sounds of disorder. He goes to the window. Looks down and sees flashes of light from gunfire. Smoke rising from an explosion. People running. The dead swarming into the city like ants. A war has begun.

Xavier stands at the edge of the roof, looking down at what Lensher just saw "All this time Lensher's been worried about a revolution on the streets. He never thought it would come from across the river".

Sutherland, Summers, other board members, and their families get into the two helicopters.

The sound of rumbling. The ceiling vibrates, knocking tear- shaped baubles off a chandelier. The sound builds in intensity. Then suddenly eases off. Through the window, Lensher sees the things that caused the rumbling two helicopters, soaring off into the night.

His eyes widen "No. No. They can't leave. Not without me!"

From behind Tolansky's voice can be heard "I think they just did, sir".

Gambit jumps out onto the street where Lance lies, bleeding from the top of his left shoulder "I hate you, Gambit. There's something about you I've always fucking hated".

Gambit grins "Same here".

Rogue puts a hand on his shoulder and points "Remy. Look out there".

Gambit looks where she is pointing. From across the river comes a flickering orange glow.

Gambit moves to a spot where he can see between the houses on

the hillside. In the distance, fire rises from the city.

Lance sits up, cackling "I didn't have to blow the fucking place up. Somebody else did for me!"

Gambit looks stunned "The stenches. They got across the river. They got across the fucking river". He turns the others "Get him inside".

Pillsbury steps in and lifts Lance easily to his feet.

Lance protests "Wait, wait, wait. What are we doin'? Where we goin'?"

"Back to the city".

Lance shakes his head "Not this horse. You got the T-Bird? I'll take that"

"Me, too".

Foxy jumps out of DEAD RECKONING and stands at Lance's side. Gambit, Rogue, and Pillsbury climb aboard. Gambit looks down at Lance and Foxy "You guys'd be safer coming with us".

"Nah, you'd never let me have any fun".

Gambit points "T-Bird's down that driveway over there. Guns and ammo inside".

"Thanks".

Gambit closes the hatch. Blood trickles from under his chin where Lance stuck him with the crossbow. Rogue reaches up and pulls off the bandana that holds back her hair, which cascades down. She uses the fabric to clean

the blood off Gambit's neck.

He looks at her, touched by the familiarity of the gesture.

Without looking into his eyes "Almost lost you there".

Gambit grins "I don't get lost so easy chere" squeezing her shoulder he then turns to Pretty Boy "Gotta get across the water".

"The bridges into the city are all bricked up".

Pretty Boy hits a button. A map appears on a monitor, showing the "GOLDEN TRIANGLE" bordered by the rivers and the barricaded bridges spanning them.

Rogue looks at the monitor "We could blast our way through".

Gambit shakes his head "Don't want to. If the stenches got in, there's a war going on in the city. We take any of those bridges we'll end up right in the middle of it".

Gambit runs his finger along the monitor, outlining the natural and man-made barriers that protect the triangle.

"We've gotta come in above the throat".

His finger continues down the monitor to "THE THROAT" at the base of the triangle, where the long fence runs between the two rivers.

"What was built to keep people safe is gonna trap them inside. We've gotta give them a way out".

Well well well, what did you think? Hope you enjoyed please let me know what you think about it.


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